DSTV

[A Black Falcon]

- Nintendo of Japan announced they are working on a TV Tuner both Nintendo DS and GameBoy Advance SP, called the DSTV Tuner, it will be compatible with both GBA-SP and Nintendo DS, and it operates on 3 alkaline batteries, which can run for 6 hours. The DSTV Tuner is scheduled for a spring 2005 release, for 9240 yen.

Magicbox.

[me]

I swear some third-party made one of these months ago:

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?categor...s_id=1938&

And only 49 dollars, what a deal.

Humbug to GBA TV tuners. Opening up your TI calculator and adding more memory with a soldering iron, now there's a healthy waste of money. Not this TV rubbish

[Dark Jaguar]

I happen to have a Game Gear TV tuner. The device didn't require any outside power source at all. I take it the DS and GBA don't supply enough power to the cartridge slot? It would have to be quite a low amount to not be able to run what would basically only need to be an antenna.

[Great Rumbler]

I'm guessing that this device is wireless?

[A Black Falcon]

There's a picture, but I guess linking it doesn't work...

http://www.the-magicbox.com/gaming.htm (near the bottom)

And the difference from past GB tuners is that this one is liscenced.

[Dark Jaguar]

I would assume as much, like most portable TVs, that it is in fact wireless.

I don't however get exactly why it requires it's own batteries. Again, the GG TV Tuner needed no outside power source, the cartridge slot was plenty.

Looked at the pic... having played a DS myself in a store earlier today, I must say that TV tuner is REALLY oversized. I mean, again, the GG tuner was actually rather small. The thing is actually about the size of the E-card reader. This thing is a monster. There are plenty of portable TVs that are MUCH smaller. Why exactly IS this thing so big and needing it's own batteries? All in all, it's like they just WANT terrible design for this thing. This is a luxery accesory anyway, they might as well spend the extra money (and charge the extra money) to make it of decent quality, which would just involve shrinking it and making it run off the limited power provided by the cartridge slot.

[A Black Falcon]

Because the GB cart port obviously doesn't provide much power -- remember that the rumble pack GBC carts also used batteries. And if you click the link (all you need to do is click it and the the image will appear in my first post), you'd see that this is actually a quite large device. I'm not surprised that it uses batteries.

And it uses an antenna. Again, just click the link and see the image in the thread.

[Dark Jaguar]

I DID! READ MY FRICKIN' POSTS!

And the size doesn't actually tell you how much power it uses, just how big it is. For all we know the device is hollow except for a small chip tucked away in the corner, ala NES cartridges :D.

Oh and, yes I know the rumbling GBC games had their own battery, but that's a motor. Motors need a lot of power anyway. This is a TV Tuner. What about this could possibly need that much power? It's all INPUT, the system should provide PLENTY. I mean, I've had speakers with NO power provided, totally unplugged, actually PLAY AM radio very quietly, simply because the energy of the light waves sending the signal were enough to activate the magnet and occilate the speaker. The only thing needed is to boost the signal, and why can't it just be boosted INSIDE the GBA/DS? Oh yes, now I get it, because to boost you need several levels of boost specially designed for both video and sound, something the average game doesn't need since the feed actually originates at a fixed power within the system... That in mind, the signal would need to be "stepped up" many times with the help of our friend the diode, and this would have to actually be in the tuner...

However, the GG tuner had plenty of power. I really don't think the cart slot of the GG had all that much power output. If the small power going to the GG game slot was enough to step up the signal, why not in the DS and SP?

[big guy]

didn't the GG run on like 6 AA batteries or something?

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, that's probably another arguement... having a seperate power supply doesn't drain the main battery while if it runs off the system battery it would definitely drain it quite a bit faster.

I DID! READ MY FRICKIN' POSTS!

Guess I missed that last paragraph or something... whatever. I agree, it is quite large. Batteries take up some space but still it's somewhat strangely big. I have no idea why... what I will say though is that it's probably better to keep it off the GB's power supply so that it doesn't unduly drain the GB batteries.

[OB1]

Hey that's pretty cool. $90 is a lot though, and it is pretty big so I dunno if I'd want to get one. But watching Arrested Development on my DS would be cool...

Plus it's first-party, so you know it'll be better than those crummy third-party ones.

[A Black Falcon]

The only issue with these things is that they only do networks over the air, not cable... unless they have cable-in ports? But I highly doubt that...

[Dark Jaguar]

The thing is I'd rather it be sucking power off the rechargeble battery I'll have for a long time than force me to buy 3 batteries I'll have to replace.

[A Black Falcon]

Then buy rechargable batteries. :)

[Dark Jaguar]

They don't make AA li-ion batteries. If you want rechargeble, you gotta get ni-ca. Ni-ca have "memory issues", in which a certain physical change in certain "cells" of the battery causes them to no longer be able to function unless the charge reaches the same level that set it that way in the first place, or in other words they "remember" their previous charge level and can only be charged to that much. No, ni-ca sucks completely, and I won't use those. Why not just let it use the system's batteries? I don't have to buy any batteries that way! Who cares if it drains them faster? They get drained anyway and now there's OTHER batteries getting drained super fast anyway!

Eh this is all theoretical anyway. I'm not actually buying this thing, I'll just stick with my Game Gear for TV watching. Sure it takes a lot of batteries, but I almost never watch TV when I'm on the go anyway, because well, there's nothing on. I can't think of a single good show on the broadcast networks any more. Seriously, I literally can't think of a single thing on free TV that I want to watch at all. Family Guy in the future, that's it.

[OB1]

Is ABF talking about how disposable batteries are better than rechargeable ones again?

[A Black Falcon]

I'm saying that it's better to be able to use the system on one charge while watching tv for six hours instead of what, three or four? At best? Because if the tuner was drawing off system power, given that it uses 3 AA batteries it'd go pretty fast...

I was just saying that if you don't want to be replacing batteries then you could use rechargable ones. Yes, they don't last as long per charge, but you don't have to buy new ones.

And anyway, as you say I doubt any of us are going to get this so does it matter much...

[OB1]

This device uses disposable batteries?

[A Black Falcon]

"and it operates on three alkaline batteries"

[Dark Jaguar]

All I'm saying is it's a pretty bad design, and I WOULD rather the system power be sucked dry than have to buy new batteries. Rechargeble batteries WOULD have to be bought ya know, they don't come with it.

[OB1]

"and it operates on three alkaline batteries"

Yeah I didn't bother to read your news post. If you posted one. Since you usually don't.

[A Black Falcon]

"Yeah I didn't bother to pay any attention to anything you said but I'll act like I am an authority on it anyway"? Umm...

And DJ, maybe having a rechargable battery in this as well would be best (for symmetry), but probably not it drawing off the main battery given how much it looks like it'd drain the things (given what kind of hour count they said for 3 AAs)...

[OB1]

When have I acted like an authority about the DSTV?

Nice try, but as per usual your attempt at pointing out hypocrisy has failed.

[A Black Falcon]

I am not being hypocritical.

[OB1]

...

Please re-read my post.

[A Black Falcon]

Either way, wait. You clearly DID read that first post because you said it was $90 in your first post... something you'd only have known if you'd read the paragraph I posted... so I guess you skipped over to the number and missed the comments describing the device?

[OB1]

Actually I went over to magic-box and saw the yen price.

[A Black Falcon]

And I quoted the Magicbox news comment, so you were reading the same thing...

[Weltall]

They don't make AA li-ion batteries. If you want rechargeble, you gotta get ni-ca. Ni-ca have "memory issues", in which a certain physical change in certain "cells" of the battery causes them to no longer be able to function unless the charge reaches the same level that set it that way in the first place, or in other words they "remember" their previous charge level and can only be charged to that much. No, ni-ca sucks completely, and I won't use those. Why not just let it use the system's batteries? I don't have to buy any batteries that way! Who cares if it drains them faster? They get drained anyway and now there's OTHER batteries getting drained super fast anyway!

I didn't even know they sell ni-cad rechargables anymore, except for cordless phones. All the rechargables I see now are NiMH, which have a higher charge capacity than NICD and do not have a memory effect.

[OB1]

And I quoted the Magicbox news comment, so you were reading the same thing...

That doesn't mean that I read your post.

[A Black Falcon]

MY POST WAS THAT MAGICBOX NEWS COMMENT! Seriously have you ever "liistened" in your life to anything anyone else is saying?

[OB1]

I DIDN'T READ THE MAGICBOX NEWS ITEM, STUPID! I JUST LOOKED AT THE YEN NUMBER!!

Man, you need to take some of your own advice for a change, Doctor Hypociso.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, yeah, I get it, I was just saying that whether you read it here or there, you certainly had the opportunity to read all the comments and because you didn't there was some confusion. Nothing big, sure, but that was the result. :)

[OB1]

*sigh*

[Great Rumbler]

*laughs*

[OB1]

[Great Rumbler]

Chuck Norris: *kicks some guy in the head*

GR: I can do that!

Chuck Norris: ...

OB1: ...

GR: Actually, I can't. :(

[OB1]

Man you suck at kicking some guy in the head.

[Great Rumbler]

I bet you can't kick some guy in the head!

[OB1]

I already did!

[Great Rumbler]

OB1, that wasn't a guy...it was a turtle.

[OB1]

Well to be fair, it was a Ninja Turtle.

[Great Rumbler]

A really short one though.

[OB1]

Still, a 3-foot tall Ninja Turtle is pretty tough.

[Great Rumbler]

Only if you're a midget!

[OB1]

No, even if you're 6'2'' like me! They're fast and throw swords!!

[Great Rumbler]

That wasn't a sword!! It was one of those decorative toothpicks!

[OB1]

...

Yeah but there were like TEN THOUSAND.0005! of them!!!!!

[Great Rumbler]

IT WAS ONLY ONE!!!

[OB1]

TIMES TEN THOUSAND.0005!!!